


The Beginning

by HeroOfMorderan



Series: Hero of Morderan [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 23:51:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11611545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeroOfMorderan/pseuds/HeroOfMorderan





	The Beginning

I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while, things have been slow. You know how it is- nothing too exciting happens around here worth telling. I’ve been trying, though, asking if there’s anything in the city that needs guarding, but I guess they have more experienced guards do that stuff. I can’t blame them either; I’m more of the bow and arrow type. Maybe one day there’ll be some pesky crows over the castle I can take care of! I could use more challenging target practice. 

I’m writing now though, because King Boridas gave me a mission! Like a real, “Haledine, and all of Morderan, will remember your name and your services under the crown.” mission! It’ll be great, this is exactly what I need! And who knows, maybe King Boridas will even put me in his court! Even if he doesn’t, it’ll be a great story. I’m going to write it all down for you to read. You’ll have the best story ever.

So here’s what I have to do: there was a transport caravan that was attacked by some goblins. Apparently, they stole the Necklace of the Land while it was headed up north to get a gem added in Talen and they ran off not too far from the North Road. My plan is to break in, take out some gobs if I have to, grab the necklace, and split in record time! It’ll be just like when my friends and I would pretend to clear a goblin dungeon. 

You weren’t around then, but you would have loved it. After work or training, we’d go into the forest and set up these huge situations where we have to save villagers or capture a powerful weapon. Maya thought we were crazy. Well, you know that story. This one is going to be even better, get ready. I leave first thing tomorrow. 

Well, I’ve been travelling all day. Judging by my map, I’d say I’m about half way there. Nothing much happened today. When I woke up, I made myself some breakfast. I decided to treat myself since it was a special day and made my favorite. After my hearty breakfast, I took one last look around the house to make sure I didn’t forget to pack anything last night. I shouldn’t be gone for long, so I didn’t bring much, but you never know, or maybe you do? Then I said goodbye, and was off.

I walked for a few hours, with the occasional rest, when I thought I heard something off in the grass beside the road. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I was trained in this and knew what to do. I prepared for the worst, which I figured was some animal looking for dinner. If the thing, or things, decided to track me, it may not have decided if it wanted to attack me yet. Maybe it’ll think I’m too strong for it and move on. So I played it cool and kept walking. I’m not stupid, though, I had one hand on my bow and another slowly moving towards my quiver the whole time. Whatever was following me stayed low and silent, but I saw the grass move ever so slightly. 

This is the part of the story where you should imagine exciting battle music fit for a warrior, because it, or rather they, must have thought I was someone they could take. The grass stopped moving, and a pair of lions leapt high into the air. They were ferocious, I never saw something so powerful in person before. You would have loved one as a pet, their coats shimmered against the sun in a way I’ve never seen. Each one was at least twice my size, but like I said, I was ready. I had two arrows loaded, and swung around- PEW- letting both loose, flying into the shoulder of the first lion.

With the first lion hurt, the second charged towards me. Its speed was amazing, and no sooner did I let go of my bow to grab my swords it was clawing at my chest. Each paw was the size of my head, and one glanced my side when I jumped back to evade the other. Maybe we surprised each other, because instead of pushing to attach, the lions regrouped and circled me. Sword in each hand, each hand extended keeping the lions at a distance, we held a standoff. 

In coordinated perfection, right before they were on either side of me, they leapt again, bounding towards me. Their roars still ring in my ears! I spun and slashed down at the lions. The arrows I shot into the first must have gone deep, because it wasn’t as fast as the other, and I landed a clean cut across his face. The second, though, was on top of me before I could gaze into its wide jaws. The force of his attack knocked us both into the grass, his paws on my chest and his teeth in my shoulder, piercing my leather.

My bedroll broke my fall, and in our struggle, I turned my sword into the beast’s side. I pushed harder and reached across with my other hand to push harder still. I forced the lion off me and he stumbled into the grass. I rolled over, bracing myself for an attack from the first lion that never came. Turning, I saw the legs of my adversary disappear into the grass. I’m grateful that they found me a challenging hunt and ran to look for easier prey. I don’t know if I would have survived if I hadn’t attacked as soon as I did.

Weary, I lifted myself to my feet, uncertain of whose blood now covered my front. You bet I wasn’t tired enough to raise my arms and give a cheer between heavy breaths, though. I’ll be telling that story to everyone for the rest of my life.

I rested there long enough to clean myself and collect my things before continuing down the road. I’m tired now, but the excitement of fighting is still pulsing through me. I dare those goblins to give me their worst, because I can best two lions.

And that brings me to now, which is to say, watching some camp off in the distance. I’ve been hiding out to see what’s going on, and it looks like a small goblin camp. They’re hard to hear over the sounds of the night, and goblin isn’t an easy language to make out to begin with, but I’ve deciphered a few things. 

It sounds like they got a big kill and are eating now. There’s some debate over how much, if any, of whatever they caught should be taken back to the others. I wonder if they’re the same goblins who took the necklace. There are only three by the fire, and they’re pretty small, so the rest must be at their base. 

That wasn’t too bad. After those lions, some goblins are a piece of cake. I snuck up on their camp until I had a good view, then planned my attack. At that point, I was feeling pretty confident, so I thought I’d try something fancy. I shot an arrow into whatever was roasting over their fire to get their attention, then ran full speed towards them! I had tied a length of rope to the end of my dagger and was swinging it over my head as I charged. I planned on taking them out in one swift motion. Before I go on, I’d like to remind you that I’m very good with a bow. I didn’t completely consider the length of the rope and dagger, so when I swung it towards the goblin closest to me, I completely missed and got stuck in the dirt. 

Well, then I had three goblins there, one had a crossbow aimed at me, the other was swinging a mace at my face, and a third held a flail above his head. I’m not sure, but I think he was taunting me, so I killed him first. I saw the metal ball reflect the burning fire and struck my swords low into his stomach. He grunted violently and fell over onto me, bringing the flail down on my back. That knocked the wind out of me, but I had no time to rest, because the other two goblins were coordinating their attack. I lifted the goblin up over my head and pivoted my back towards the goblin with the crossbow. As the dead goblin fell off my swords behind me, I heard a small thud of an arrow driving itself into his back. 

Now I just had a mace and crossbow to deal with. The crossbow had to be reloaded, and the mace had just made contact with my side, so I decided to address that first. We exchanged glancing blows, his mace catching the edge of my sword, and me dancing around the swings of his weapon. I had to keep moving to dodge the bolts of a crossbow flying around me. Sure, getting hit doesn’t tickle, but this fight was kind of fun. I couldn’t hide a smile.

He wouldn’t keep trying to shoot me for long, so I made quick work of the mace wielder before I got teamed up on. At last I saw my opportunity. A weak swing sent the mace falling to the ground. Spinning to his exposed side, I hooked him with the handle of my sword and sent the other sword deep into the shoulder of his dominant side. He howled a guttural cry before falling to the ground. 

I had almost forgotten about the final goblin before he reminded me with a powerful blow of his fallen ally’s flail. My knees buckled, and I weakly slashed at my attacker’s feet. There’s no way I was letting some gobs best me. One of my swords was still buried into the shoulder of the previous goblin, so I used my free hand to tumble under a swinging strike and struck the goblin’s back as I lifted myself up. It wasn’t a strong hit- if anything I think it made him mad, and he swung around to continue our battle. 

He was small, so I decided to charge him in hopes of overpower him with sheer mass alone. Deflecting his flail with my sword, I tacked him to the ground, pinning his arms with my knees. My eyes were blurry, but the fire illuminated the face of the creature just enough to know where to punch. His grotesque face turned and let out soft grunts as my fists pummeled his bruised and deformed eyes and mouth. I felt his struggles beneath me weaken slightly, and I knew I had bested him. Better, he knew he had lost. 

Goblins are gross. They’re monsters who have done no good for this kingdom. I mean, they fought with Galithan during the Great War, and I thought I would have wanted to take out all my rage on this goblin under me. He had given up. If I wanted to, I could have wailed on him. I didn’t, though. Even in the dark, I could see it. His eyes, locked on mine. They were empty, and not the soulless evil empty they always have. This was different. This Goblin had a life, a history. Heck, he may have had a family. Staring down at him I saw him saying goodbye to all those things. I saw him realize he would never see anyone he cares about again. I didn’t see him give up on our fight, I saw him give up on life. That’s a weird thing, connecting with your enemy. I mean, I hate goblins, but is it possible to not hate every goblin, or only parts of goblins? Who’s to say every goblin wasn’t like this one? I didn’t even know what this goblin was doing here, I just kind of went to town on them because they were there. I saw humanity in that goblin, something I always thought they lacked. One final blow knocked him unconscious. 

I tied him up away from his friends and gathered my things before helping myself to the lion still over the fire. When I heard struggles hinting towards the goblin regaining consciousness, I grabbed my dagger and sat next to him. The free time I had at the castle all these years gave me time to study some languages. You know I learned Elvish, but recently I picked up Goblin. It’s such an angry language, so I don’t like using it, but I needed him to tell me where their hideout was. Of course, he wasn’t going to cooperate, but eventually he told me what I wanted. I have to decide what to do with the two bodies, I’ve never dealt with bodies before. I feel like I should burry them, but I don’t know. I think I’ll let the other goblin decide when he wakes up. I untied him and left some berries I found. For now, I’ll rest, and tomorrow finish my short journey north into the forest. 

I’m all set and ready to go. I don’t know what’s waiting for me in that forest, and I’m scarred. I want you to know I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean much now, but I am sorry. Even if I’m afraid, I need to go. The King will be grateful after this, and I owe you a story. You’re going to get the best story yet. 

It wasn’t a far walk to the cave, but I took my time. I always liked the forest. If I didn’t have my job, I’d probably move to a nice village. Maybe I’d get a job as a blacksmith, but not any regular one, one where I custom make everything. I could even mine my own materials if I had the time. I wonder if I could do specialty weapons too, like if I learned magic and enchanted them? That’d be really cool. If King Boridas lets me into his court, he might let me live outside the city in a nearby village. Curtlik is already there, and she can do anything ten times better than I can, so I could just come in if they needed me. Sorchan’s there too, he could teach me some spells! As great as that sounds, it’s not going to happen until I get this necklace. 

What do you think an entrance of a cave looks like? Now, I’m sure there are different kinds of entrances, but who decided just a hole in the ground qualifies? I didn’t see any goblins around when I snuck up, so I peeked down the steep entrance. It’s so cold, and I couldn’t fight the shiver that raced down my spine. The sun is high now, so I can see far down the dirt and rock tunnel. It turns at the end, going deeper underground. I guess I just go in? Not before I set a quick trap at the entrance with the sticks and rocks I collected. If any goblins show up while I’m inside, they’ll spring my tap and make enough noise for me to hear. 

I built the trap. It’s not pretty, but it will work. It’s actually kind of embarrassing how bad it is, like if any goblins see it and don’t set it off, I’ll still probably hear them because they’d be laughing so loudly at how bad this trap is. That’s why you love me, right? I’m lovable. Ugh, ok…

Now that I have my back covered, there’s nothing left but to slowly decent into the cave. The mud is slippery, but it left some goblin tracks for me to follow if I get lost. 

You should know, what happens next is the coolest thing ever. Go on and imagine that epic music again, I’ll wait. I inched through the tunnel into the cave, my back against the wall, my head following the tip of my arrow back and forth between the mouth of the cave and the darkness that awaited me. The hallway curved right, and I clung to the inner wall. Judging by the prints in the mud, at least five goblins came through here, but how many more lay in wait? I would soon find out.

Past the turn, the tunnel extended deeper forward into the shadows. The dim light of the torches provided weak light for me to see only a few feet ahead, so I relied on my hearing to identify enemies. As my progress grew, I found a door on my left. Crouching to listen, two voices pierced the hard wooden door, but what they were saying escaped me. 

Keeping one ear on the door, my hand tested the handle, which gently moved at my soft push. I let out a sigh of relief to not have to pick a lock, and I straightened myself for battle. BAM! I kicked in the door! As it flung in, the startled goblins scrambled for the weapons that decorated the room. They weren’t the only ones startled, though, because what I heard to be two goblins turned out to be four. It was too late go back, and their numbers passed over me as four quickly became three when I released my arrow into the chest of a goblin readying his crossbow. 

Ducking behind one of the pillars that held up the roof, I loaded another arrow and processed my survey of the room. I didn’t have long to look, but my quick eyes didn’t need much time to process the spacious armory I ambushed. There were weapons stored along the left and right walls, racks separated by benches and crates. Four pillars held up the roof at scattered points along the room. Clearly, not much thought was taken in the design. I wouldn’t have time to load another arrow after this, and I wouldn’t get lucky with another knock out shot again, so I had to be fast and smart.

After a short exhale, I pivoted to meet the charge of a goblin raising his sword high in the air. I had just enough time to shoot down at his leg, sending an arrow deep into his thigh before spinning away from his swing. He stumbled and a quick push was all it took to send him falling to the ground. Two left. One raced to a spear while the other raised the loaded crossbow. Before I had time to react, I felt a blot from the crossbow rip deep into my bicep. I had my swords in each hand, but dropped one as the pain shot down my arm. I’ll be honest, this battle was less fun, and I certainly wasn’t smiling. 

I was pinned behind the pillar. If I moved now, I’d surely invite a spear attack, but if I continue to wait, I’ll have that crossbow to deal with. Even worse, the goblin I shoved was getting up and did not look happy. No time to waste, they were closing in, so I did the only thing I could. I moved along the left wall, first making quick work of the one goblin before moving forward, putting my injured arm between the other goblins and the rest of me. I figured better they hit that than my only good arm, and I was right because I felt the pressure of what could only be a spearhead tear at my arm. It was either the rush of battle or my previous injury, because that seemed to hurt less than I expected. 

The spear throwing goblin was prepared, and ran to meet me with a sword of his own. I tried to keep him between the crossbow and me, which worked well until he ditched the crossbow for a morning star. Luckily, I was well armored and the goblins were weak, because I couldn’t hold them both off. At the time, I only felt the pressure and force of the repeated attacks, but now the burning pain is setting in all over. I can’t tell what is bruised, broken, or bleeding. 

I don’t remember how long we fought, but I held my endurance and eventually outlasted them until I got enough slashes in to send one of the goblins falling back in defeat. I was so relieved to see him collapse, and so mad to remember that there was still one more of these things to deal with. I didn’t have time for this, and if there are any more of them coming I was done for. I wasn’t even listening for my trap anymore let alone considering how many more rooms I’d have to fight my way though. Up to this point, I had been pulling my attacks, aiming to incapacitate or knock them out, but I have a mission, and honestly if it’s me or a goblin, I’m choosing me. 

I swung my sword with all the strength I had in me, fueled further by my anger and frustration, and beat away his morning star with my sword, exposing his chest. Raising my leg, I almost lost my balance kicking the goblin back. It was then when I realized how tired I was. Sweat was mixing with blood and both were dripping down my face. I blinked away the liquid in my eyes and lunged forward. My eyes were closed when I heard the last gasping sound the goblin would make. My heavy breath and pounding heart rang in my ears when I felt his body slide off my sword and onto the ground. I keep telling myself I had to do it, but I can’t get the face of that other goblin at the camp out of my head. 

It wasn’t long thereafter that I too fell to my knees, hunched over, hands grabbing at the red dirt, and began to vomit. 

Now at this point I imagine you’re asking yourself how I thought this was the coolest thing ever. Well… just wait, ok? I still took down four goblins on my own, you can’t say that isn’t at least “alright”.

I rested for a while there. Checking to see which goblins were still breathing, I found only one had died. I tied and gagged the rest in the corner. After barricading both the door I entered and the door on the other side, I patched myself up and laid down on one of the benches. I don’t know how long I was out, but the intense pounding on the far door opposite the one I entered jolted me awake. I was so sore, and the goblin shouting rung loud in my head. Everything hurt, and when I pushed myself off the bench, I collapsed to the ground. Wincing, I discover my minor wounds had begun to heal, but my right arm was still raw. 

Judging by the raps on the door and the shouting, I figured there were three of them: two at one door and one at the other. I didn’t have my full strength, but I also didn’t have a choice. Where my strength was weak I had to be smart. I was in a room full of weapons and supplies, if I could trap the doors, I might still have a chance of making out of here alive. My barricades were starting to give in too, I didn’t have much time. My heart was beating louder than the banging at the doors. 

The traps weren’t pretty, but they were effective. Just as I hoped, when the goblins broke through the door, they tripped a piece of rope I had strung across the floor, releasing the balanced morning stars and battle axes I placed over the door. The force of the impact was what did it. I still had the second goblin that came through one of the doors, but I was prepared for him too. He burst through, growling and showing his yellow teeth, and was greeted with a crossbow bolt to the heart. With my arm weak, I couldn’t use my bow, but I had a crossbow aimed right at the door ready for when he showed his face. 

It turned out my traps weren’t exactly perfect, and while I got lucky and a battle axe landed clean into one of the goblin’s head, it merely dazed the other. He was still recovering from the impact when my sword met his throat, and my battle was over. I had no choice but to keep moving now, I had no doors to protect me, so I exited through the door opposite I entered, my loaded crossbow leading the way. What met me was a short hallway which turned right, presumably a way around the armory back to the entrance, so I approached the door on the left. I took my time listening, partially to discern what was on the other side, but mainly to rest and catch my breath.

I heard the now familiar sound of goblin grunts, but one sound was new, and it struck a fear into my heart which I had not yet known was possible. My breath escaped me as I continued listening to this new, monstrous sound. It spoke goblin, but its voice was barbaric, and its words were covered under growls and grunts. How could I content with this beast? Even if I was at my full health, there were at least three goblins in there with it. My hands shook and I hadn’t even seen the creature waiting for me, what would I do when its eyes marked me for death?

I made a choice. I told myself I would get you a story, and I couldn’t end it there, not like this. I told the King I would find the Necklace of the Land, and my gut told me it was on the other side of the door. I could die a hero or live a coward, and I had no point living without honor. I lifted myself up, raised my crossbow, and kicked down the door.


End file.
